September 26, 2010

Oh my goodness, what a BUSY summer it has been! I kept trying to find time to blog and life kept giving me one detour after another! Finally, things seem to be back in a sane rhythm again.

The chaos all centers around me setting up and getting my home business set up and running. And here I thought it would just be a walk in the park! Silly me!

But now, The Beast holds court in the front room, where I have a nice view of the front yard while I work. For machine embroidery geeks, this is the Babylock Entrepreneur with 10 needles. It sews up to 1000 stitches per minute and well, is a beast!

I hope for machine embroidery to be our prime income, but I have also been making jewelry out of fine silver, which I hope to sell in an Etsy shop once we are back from a trip to see my husband's family in the UK.

My biggest embroidery order, to date, has been jackets for a cruise group of 62 people! Let me tell you, the beast was running virtually day and night for ages! The cats were not amused! I had to stop in the evenings so the girls could do homework.

So, after all those waking hours working and working and working, I have been on a mini work vacation, since I can't start any big new orders between now and when we leave for Europe. As a reward, I am playing for a few days and working on craft orphans. You know, the projects you start and don't get around to finishing?

So my first orphan to work on is a doll kit to make a Hitty doll by Gail Wilson. The real Hitty in the book "Hitty: Her First Hundred Years" is all wood, but I was pretty sure I would carve a digit off, doing a doll that way. Gail has a version where the head, arms and legs are done in paper mache and painted to look like wood, and she has a cloth body. I was so nervous about painting her face. Generally, I avoid painting, it just is not very high in my artistic skill set. But I really wanted to make Hitty, so I made myself get past that fear and painted really, really, really slowly. And it worked!! The other challenging part was attaching her clothing body to her head and limbs. I didn't realize that would be so tricky!

Then, feeling on a roll, I worked on my poor, neglected Block of the Month 2009 from Bunny Hill. Two months down now! At this rate, I will be done in another ten years! LOL! I do like how it turned out though.

Then finally, I had two jewelry projects that had been left only partially completed when the great embroidery projects came to my door. So I finished those two, with my first attempt at setting a stone. (I think the color was not quite right, but I will try again later.) I do like how the owls turned out though.

Next, I hope to dress poor Hitty, so she isn't cold this winter! Check back and I will post some pictures when it is finished. I also hope to post some fun vintage fall and Halloween graphics soon.

June 14, 2010

I have decided to make an official day each week just for me, just for crafting, what ever tickles my fancy!

There is always a bit of a guilt factor for me when I craft just for fun. The little voice in the back of my head nags me. "Isn't there laundry to do?" "I saw a pile of ironing waiting to be done." "The living room floor really needs a vacuum." "You need to be working on the machine embroidery business!"

So, in order to find a balance, I have decided that I will focus the majority of the week on work and chores, but give myself a day off each week to just play.

One of my on-going projects is finishing the doll house which has been sitting in a corner of the craft room for..well for years. That was my New Year's resolution. I have managed to get the 1st floor done, and I am now working on the second. The silly thing seems like it should just go together in an afternoon but there is SO much painting if it is to be done right. Primer goes down on the wood, then a coat of paint, then sanding, then a coat of paint, then more sanding, then a final coat of paint. I know that seems like a lot, but in small scale, even little bits of roughness in the wood, takes away from the illusion of scale (and I am a bit of a perfectionist! My grandpa always said if you were going to do a job, to take the time and do it right.) Even the walls to be wallpapered should have at least one coat of paint to help the paper stick properly. (This is a trick, so if you want to change the wall paper later, it will actually come off and not be permanently stuck to the wood.)

Yeah! I don't have to paint where the singles will be going!

So the last two Friday's have had time devoted to the many coats of paint, with other crafting between drying and sanding times.

I am trying to also get some older projects finished before I jump into new ones. That is only sorta working, because the new projects call my name in the middle of the night. Do you have that problem?

The kitchen towel I started at the quilting show got finished, and surprisingly only took about an additional hour. After wards I thought, "Well why didn't I do this sooner? It was easy to complete!" I tried out doing machine applique for the first time for the majority of the towel, then did had embroidered blanket stitch around the tongue and fish bowl plant. Then I added little beads as bubbles for Mr. Fish, and embroidered a mouth and nose on Mr. Kitty., and finished things off with a couple eyes.

Then finally, I did a quick new project using a little pattern from Bird Brains which I also picked up at the quilt show. It wouldn't stop calling my name and I needed to make the voices stop. *grin*

How cute is that? See why I couldn't wait!

While I can't share this pattern for a little pin cushion, I can share a similar one from a vintage children's magazine called "Children's Activities." If I recall, this issue was somewhere in the 40s. If I was really diligent, I would go look up the exact issue, but that sounds like way too much hunting at the moment.

I did create a PDF file of this, which you can print and use for yourself. It should be easy enough to add leaves from green felt, if you want it to look a bit more like the one I made.

How do you make times for crafts? Do you have a special day? Do you have a place just for crafting? Please share, I would love to know.

June 05, 2010

I savor the lulls in my busy schedule when I have a bit of time to bake. There is something about the the smell of vanilla and the softness of sifted flour, the anticipation of tasting goodies still warm from the oven.

Some of my favorite recipes are the ones my passed down from my mom. Smelling them cooking brings back all sorts of happy memories. She bakes so many good things: cakes, cookies.. oh and her chocolate cream pie that my sister asked for each year for her birthday, instead of a cake! But of all of the things she made, my favorite was banana nut bread.

I was in my early teens when I asked her to give me the recipe so I could try making it myself. Fortunately, I have since learned to spell flour properly!

It is important to use nice and ripe bananas, to give the sweetness needed. I also use double the banana listed in the recipe, to make the bread extra moist.

It is also important to make it in my mom's antique mixing bowl, which she passed on to me in my mid 20's. All the yummy things which have been mixed in it, have seasoned it for perfect baking. Hey, that's my story, and I am sticking to it.

Oh and the walnuts... the recipe says to use 3/4 of a cup. Ha! You can't have too many walnuts in banana nut bread and of course you need some sprinkled on top for looks!

How much is that? 1/2 cup? 3/4 of a cup? I don't know, but it looks right! Oh, and since I have tweaked the recipe a bit, it often needs to cook longer. I use a strand of uncooked spaghetti pushed into the cooked loaf. If it comes out "clean" the bread is done, if it has batter on it, keep it in the oven longer.

May 27, 2010

If there were only more hours in the day to do the fun stuff! Last week I went to a sewing and quilting show at the local fair grounds.

It was primarily to get information and ideas for my machine embroidery business. They were having a special on the top 100 most popular colors for embroidery machines, 50% off! But now I don't want to store the spools properly, they looks so pretty in the box!

Our cat Milkyway approved as well.

They had some make-and-take projects and it can't all be work and no play, right? This one involved using wonder-under to do applique work on a kitchen towel. I need to machine zig-zag around the edges still, and do some finishing touches, like the eyes and mouth.

Poor thing can't see! I feel guilty!

I found a new design company called Bird Brain Designs. They do wonderful, country style redwork, as well a felting, and projects in felt. This is a pattern I bought from them. Isn't the strawberry pin cushion the cutest? Can you see the little ladybug on the green felt leaf?

I found a few other goodies to bring home as well, now I just need to find the free time to just do what I want to do. My first project is going to be that pincushion!

Oh, I almost forgot!! The other cool thing about Bird Brain Designs is their free patterns!! If you like doing redwork, I highly recommend you check them out.

March 06, 2010

My sister, Beth, is such an inspiration to me! She has started a non-profit group called Hands of Hope which works in conjunction with Girl-Child Network Worldwide

I suppose it would help to explain the Girl-Child Network Worldwide first. They are an organization working with girls in African countries who are victims of abuse, human trafficking and/or rape to help them transform into survivors and leaders. GCNW builds centers which provide education, medical care, legal assistance and police protection.

My sister started Hands of Hope to use needlework (her huge passion!) to help in this process. Kits are put together of embroidery hoops, floss, needles, scissors, cloth, etc. and then sent to the GCNW centers in Africa. There, interested girls are taught embroidery skills and will practice with the provided kit. With guidance they are then taught design basics and work to create an embroidery design of their own which represents something special to them.

When the design is completed, it will be sent back to Hands of Hope, where my sister will make kits to sell using the girl’s design. All proceeds will then be sent back to that girl, to help her gain the means to seek an education, starting a business or similar goals which will improve her life.

Beth runs an Etsy store where she sells hand-crafted items (she is SO talented) and then pours all profits into the supplies for her charity.

As you may recall, I am running a fledgling machine embroidery business called E’Bellish. Beth is my first customer, well guinea pig, because while I an donating my time and work to Hands of Hope, she has had to wait for me to learn what I am doing! LOL! Doing a machine embroidery design from scratch may sound simple, but I have been working on it for over a month now. It required learning all sorts of things from creating vector graphics; providing the machine with instructions to compensation with the stretch of fabrics; and engineering the most effective order to stitch the design to reduce thread count, time anddistortion.

This weekend everything has been coming together and it is SO exciting! Beth has been sending out sponsorship requests and just learned on Friday that Janlynn Corporation (a national company which makes and sells needlework kits) wishes to be a long term sponsor and partner with Hands of Hope. I did a happy dance because I finally pulled it all together and successfully created and stitched out the logo for Hands of Hope. And finally, one of the items in the Hands of Hope Etsy store made the front page the Etsy site today, as a featured item!

How cool is all that? I am so, so proud of Beth and I hope you might take a moment to visit her website which further explains her vision Oh by the way, if you are interested in helping, she is currently running a contest with prizes for anyone who helps out.

February 15, 2010

There are a lot of balls to juggle, as of late. As I mentioned in my last blog, I am working on launching my machine embroidery business. I feel progress is good in that area. I have come up with a name, E' Bellish, ordered business cards, reserved URLs for a website and am filling out the small business applications for the city, while working on getting up to speed on the software I need to know.

Meanwhile, my brother-in-law, who has a little B&B in France is having problems with the company who has been providing info on his B&B, as well as setting up reservations. So he asked if I can make a website for his property. I have not designed a website from top-to-bottom in over 5 years, so I am suspecting I will be a bit rusty. Just to be clear, I am not complaining, I just need to share a bit of the chaos. *grin*

I have had to really cut back on my crafty stuff, which is really rough, but realistic if I am going to successfully launch E' Bellish. So Sunday I block as my day of relaxation and give myself permission to just play. Yesterday I chose to spend some quality time on my dollhouse, which I have talked about in past blogs.

Rewiring was done for the electrical and I was able to get the lights to work! Woohoo! So I re-wallpapered the kitchen and re-did the trim around the window in the kitchen.

Then I added the baseboard trim downstairs. Finally I was able to decorate with all the goodies I have been collecting for the last 10 years. Some of the items in the house were made by me. Many were made by very skilled artisans in the world of miniatures.

For instance, I assembled and upholstered the arm chair on the left, but the beautiful needlework on the footstool was done by my friend Jo Berbiglia. She used a single strand of silk floss and her work is amazing. The clock on the wall was made by a man in Spain, unfortunately, I can't recall his name, but his work is stunning. And the spinning wheel was made by another friend in our miniature group, named Al Cushman. By the way, please think good thoughts for him. He is elderly and is in the hospital for severe pneumonia.

In the kitchen, the sink was made by a pair of ladies who specialize in kitchen items. Their business is called Hammer and Smith. The stove is just regular dollhouse stock that you can find from most dollhouse shops. My favorite part is collecting all the details that turns it from a house to a home.

And I especially like vintage kitchen goodies. I can almost smell the cinnamon! The table I also assembled and painted. The drawer really opens and closes.

I think it was Tasha Tudor, the artist and writer, who really got me into the joy and imagination a dollhouse can bring.

I want it to be a place I would want to live, with tea and sewing next to my comfy chair, the ticking of the family clock and the warm glow of a fireplace.

Well it is Monday now, and time to get back to responsibilities, work and chores. I hope you have enjoyed the little tour of the downstairs of my dollhouse and I wish you happiness and contentment till next we chat.

January 29, 2010

The recession has changed the career paths of many people, no news there, and our family has also been touched by the events of the last year.

A few months ago, I made a decision to try to make a living doing custom machine embroidery. I have always loved sewing and hand embroidery of every type, but it is very hard to make any money doing it, since the time and energy to embroider one kitchen towel exceeds any possible profit. My hope is that with machine embroidery I can create some wonderful, one-of-a-kind pieces, with labor and materials costs that will allow me to manage a profit. I also would like to use my creative skills to create my own line of designs, using what is called digitization software. For the geeks out there, that means creating a vector graphic of the design I wish to embroider, then assigning instructions for the machine on how to lay down the colors and what order to do the stitching in to make it look as professional as possible while keeping stretching, puckering and unwanted overlap from occurring.

So last week I spent four days attending a conference for professionals in the "decorative garment industry" learning all I could in classes, seminars and workshops. My poor little head is on the verge of exploding.

Meanwhile, I had to upgrade to a more robust computer to handle the digitizing software and so I have been busy setting that up and installing and learning my new embroidery software. Then last night, the CD/DVD drive just stopped working! Arghh! I had only had the machine 10 days! So I called Toshiba and the only solution is to send the computer back and be replaced. It will take 2-3 days for them to get the computer, then another 8-10 business days to build a new one, before they can send it back. *bummer*

So, to cheer myself up, I decided to work on my doll house, and get the electricity repaired in hopes of making my end-of-month deadline to finish the downstairs.

I carefully stripped all the wallpaper in the kitchen, with a mixture of water and vinegar.

I carefully repaired the wiring in the areas I had identified as having problems. Then, I went to test my work.

No joy. No only did my test light fail to light up, but the fuse immediately blew. *sigh* I replaced the fuse, tried again and that fuse went as well. Four fuses burned, nothing worked. I am so bummed. I will not make my end of month goal and now I have to order new wiring and pull out all the old stuff and start over with new wiring. Something in the old stuff is bad and shorting thing out the system and there is no way to isolate it at this point I am not getting any breaks this week!

I guess being discouraged makes successes all the sweeter! Speaking of success, I have been following Weight Watchers since early November. I have made it through Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, New Years and way too many cravings and I have now lost a total of 18 lbs. Hmm, maybe it isn't all gray clouds and gloom! Find something to smile about!

P.S. Any and all warm thoughts about my venture into a home business would be appreciated! I am scared to death and am not entirely sure I am sane! LOL!

January 16, 2010

I found another estate sale I just had to go explore. It was a home where the woman had been an avid doll collector and maker. She had a kiln and about a zillion molds and hundreds of dolls I am getting into these estate sales, you never know what you might find.

The coolest thing I found was a copy of a doll I had been given to me at Christmas when I was 10 years old. My mother gave her too me, along with the book Hitty. Actually, I would not even remember the year, but my mother helpfully inscribed it with the date and occasion. I have actually tried to find a copy of the doll for years, with no luck.But there, at this sale, I found her again! Made a few years after mind, with a dress in a different print, but otherwise exactly my long lost doll and she only cost $3! It must have been my day!

In addition to Hitty, I also found several other dolls I couldn't pass by. Does this me one of those nutty ladies that have a house filled with nothing but dolls? I find that creepy, but I do treasure the dolls I own. How does that work out? I do avoid commercial dolls that are sold in pink aisles of Toys R Us. I like traditional and handmade, because there is artistry and love in the making, not just a "Made in China" stamped on a rubber butt.

That said, someone please put me down if I start to collecting crying clown dolls with music boxes, okay?

The little boy on the right is about 3-1/2 inches tall and all three are jointed so they can stand or sit. They were each only $1 - how can you pass up a deal like that?

As to my doll house, I have made progress, but I ran into a snag today. I was trying to test the electrical system and install little outlets and found most of the power did not work. I find "juice" near the the point the cord is plugged in, so that was good.

The light is a test probe. But unfortunately, as you might notice, I had to strip back the wallpaper to confirm I was properly hitting the connections. Now I have to strip the whole wall and re-paper it, which will not be a quick project since the glue is very efficient. After much fussing, I found out why I was no getting power in the rest of the house.

I realized when I had been putting in the wall paper, I had run the x-acto knife down the corner to clean it up. Duh! I cut through the wiring in the process. How brilliant is that?

However, I have installed the floor and the center wall and I am ready to put in baseboard once the electrical issues are resolved. So I have an order in for more electrical tape to "patch" my little boo-boo. I am still hoping to make my goal of finishing the downstairs by the end of the month. I hope this little snafu has not ruined that deadline.

I would love to hear about the projects you are working on! Please share!

January 04, 2010

In recent years, I had stopped doing any New Year's resolutions. I felt less guilty because I didn't have something to flake and fail over! However, this year I have picked a resolution for 2010 and I intend to see it through.

As some of my readers may know, I love miniatures, dolls and doll houses and have created my own miniatures since I was a child. Unfortunately, the sturdy doll house my father made me as a child, was stolen from my garage when I was in my 20s and I have not had a proper doll house since then. Don't get me wrong, I make minis: furniture, food, needlework, all sorts of goodies to go into a doll house, but all of that has been sitting in boxes, waiting for a home both literally and figuratively!

Way, way, way back in 2000 (ack, was that really 10 years ago??), on eBay I found an old never assembled doll house kit, which I bought with all sorts of visions and expectations.

Doesn't the photo on the box look wonderful?

Full of enthusiasm, I began to assemble my dream home!

Then added layers and layers of primer, the old wood just soaked it up!

Wiring went on the inside so I could have lights, and then house color went on the outside. Even our cat Minux approved!

But then, the poor house sat. And sat. And sat; almost 9 years! It moved around the craft room. Stuff was stored inside the shell. Minux thought it made a grand place to sleep and soon there was cat fur everywhere! *Hangs head in shame*

My resolution is to actually work on it this year and FINISH it, so I have a wonderful house to enjoy and a place to put all my mini treasures.

I have now installed the front door, hung wallpaper downstairs, trimmed the inside doors and windows, built the wall to go between the living room and kitchen and cut some of the flooring to fit!

Built a wall to go between the living room and kitchen and cut some of the flooring to fit!

My more immediate goal is to finish the downstairs by the end of January. What is your New Year's resolution?

December 12, 2009

As you may have noticed, I love vintage graphics, especially from children's books and magazines. I found this wonderful vintage calendar project in the January 1954 edition of Children's Activities magazine.

Not only are the pictures for each month charming, but the dates from 1954 fall on the same days of the week for 2010 . So you can actually use this for 2010 and give this calendar and charming graphics a new life.

I plan to color mine in with colored pencils and hang this in my craft room. This would also be a sweet gift to tuck in a stocking!

Please download a copy for yourself or for gift giving and I wish allof you a Merry Christmas!